The city of Longview, Texas, paid far-right rocker Ted Nugent $16,000 not to appear at the Fourth of July Festival. A city spokesman said Nugent was “not the right feel for this kind of community event.” Nugent had been scheduled as the headliner to play the Maude Cobb Convention and Activity Center as part of the Independence Day celebration.

Undercover operation

Honolulu police are urging lawmakers not to do away with an exemption in state law that allows undercover officers to have sex with prostitutes before they make an arrest. Their argument for this little-discussed exemption is that taking it away would hamper investigations. Honolulu Police Maj. Jerry Inouye testified, “Prostitution suspects, pimps and other people” would know “exactly how far the undercover officer can and cannot go.” We don’t remember Steve McGarrett ever making use of the exemption before saying, “Book ’em, Danno!”

Weird science

We know how the prancing and preening peacock catches the attention of the peahen. Now researchers with Northumbria University in England think they’ve learned something about men and what dance moves prove alluring to women — yes, this is a heterosexist survey. The researchers filmed 19 men using a 3D camera. They mapped the movements onto a blank background and created dancing avatars. Thirty-five heterosexual women judged the dancers on a 1-10 scale. The results? The guys who made large and more variable movements of the head, neck and torso scored high. Speed of leg movements suggested dancing ability to the women, particularly a bending and twisting of the right knee. But not the arms. So, it pays to learn to line dance.

What happens in Vegas

When Joey Kadmiri snuck backstage at an all-male dance revue at the Excalibur Hotel in Las Vegas, he hoped to snag the casts’ costumes, makeup and props. But six male strippers noticed a stranger wearing one of the show’s SWAT hats and firefighter’s shirts and confronted him. Kadmiri pulled a gun, apparently unaware that you don’t mess with the Thunder from Down Under. The dancers wrestled away the weapon and tackled him to the ground, leaving him covered in bruises. Kadmiri faces charges on six counts of attempted murder, attempted robbery with a deadly weapon and burglary with a deadly weapon.

X-rated studies

The debut issue of Porn Studies, published by Routledge and co-edited by a professor at London’s Middlesex University, was released in March. And, most likely those with this journal in their possession really did pick it up for the articles. Titles include “Revisiting dirty looks,” “Hard to swallow: Hard-core pornography on screen,” “Internationalizing porn studies” and “Pornography, porno, porn.” The editors, in their journal notes, called Porn Studies a labor of love.

Pot polling

Public Policy Polling asked Colorado voters if they were happy with legalized recreational marijuana in the state and found a majority said yeah to that, dude. But while 57 percent said they supported legalization and 31 percent said it has improved the state, just 8 percent admitted they’ve smoked marijuana since it became legal. Another 3 percent said they didn’t want to say. Paranoia strikes deep, apparently. PPP also found support for legalizing same-sex marriage about equal to support for legalizing marijuana in Colorado.

Unique platform

Republican voters in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District chose Susanne Atanus to face incumbent Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky in November. Atanus’ pitch to voters was unique: She argued on the stump that diseases and natural disasters are God’s response to abortion and same-sex marriage. We wonder what God’s response is to the Republican primary voters in Illinois’ 9th District.

Be the boss

The Girl Scouts of America, Facebook and a host of high-profile women — including Beyoncé, Jane Lynch and Condoleezza Rice — have collaborated on the “Ban Bossy” campaign, which seeks to deal with the idea that girls resist leadership roles because they’re afraid of being seen as “bossy.” The campaign has its proponents, who want to see girls excel, but also its critics, including some who think girls should own the “B” word in the way gays took ownership of “queer.”

What was that address?

German customs officials have revealed that in January they intercepted a shipment of cocaine packed into condoms destined for the Vatican. Officers at Leipzig airport found 12 ounces of the drug packed into 14 condoms inside a shipment of cushions coming from South America, according to a German customs report. It said the package was simply addressed to the Vatican postal office, meaning any of the Catholic mini-state’s 800 residents could have picked it up.